The invention concerns an apparatus for housing small animals, especially poultry to be fattened, such as chickens.
The breeding of poultry to be fattened, especially chickens, takes place in large-area housing enclosures on a continuous enclosure floor. The chickens reared in a housing enclosure are transported away at the same time when they have reached the desired weight.
To facilitate this removal, which is a problem in the keeping of small animals, it has already been proposed to provide above the enclosure floor a grate-shaped supporting floor designed as a conveyor belt. The supporting floor, consisting of individual tracks located next to one another, is moved to one side of the housing enclosure, carrying the chickens along with it. In a region where the supporting floor is deflected, the chickens pass on to a transversely directed conveyor belt to be conveyed away out of the housing enclosure (DE-A 2703 968). In this known proposal the supporting floor or the tracks of the same consist of individual grate bars made of plastic, which are articulated to one another. These are arranged rotatably by means of bearing sleeves on transversely directed supporting bars. Such a design of the supporting floor or the tracks of said proposal has proven to be unfavourable in practice. The resting base is too hard for the sensitive animals. Because of the ribs, pressure points arise, especially in the region of the animals ' breasts, when they rest on the supporting floor for a relatively long time. Furthermore the relative movement between the grate elements or bars is unfavourable because of the danger of soiling, clogging of dung, and the like.
According to a proposal in accordance with EP-B-51 844 (corresponding to U.S. Pat. No. 4,430,960) these disadvantages are to be eliminated by having the supporting floor consist of intersecting, supporting profiles made of an elastic, soft material, especially soft PVC, and on the upper side, in each case above the supporting rods, by having soft, elastic elevations. This type of construction, indeed, has proven to be favourable in practice. However, it is still relatively expensive, in manufacture as well as in assembly.